MINISTERS DEMAND HEARINGS ON POLICE

Robert Blau and Jerry ThorntonCHICAGO TRIBUNE

A coalition of ministers who met with Police Supt. LeRoy Martin for an hour and a half Tuesday called for a series of public hearings to be held on the South and West Sides concerning alleged police brutality.

While the ministers said Martin was doing a commendable job as superintendent, a spokesman for the group, Rev. Bernard Taylor, lashed out at Mayor Richard Daley for his alleged insensitivity to the black community and for creating an ''open season on blacks.''

''It is the responsibility of the mayor to set the atmosphere,'' Taylor said. Under Daley, he said, alleged brutality by police ''does not seem to make a difference.''

The public hearings would enable the superintendent to ''listen to the people who may have problems with the police,'' said Taylor, adding that Martin had agreed to attend them.

Martin said he had agreed to appear before groups of ministers on the South and West Sides to discuss the charges of brutality, but denied he had agreed to attend public hearings.

The ministers want to meet with the mayor when he returns from his overseas trip, Taylor said.

A police board meeting is scheduled for Oct. 12 at Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Van Buren St., Taylor said. No dates have been set for the public hearings.

Martin said that he would authorize the ministers to go on ''ride-alongs'' in police cars so they can observe police activities up close.

And he deflected criticism of Daley.

''I hate to even get into this, because he can defend himself,'' Martin said. ''The man has given me carte blanche to run this department. We haven`t had a significant upsurge in excessive force. . . . The Police Department is being set upon without just cause. It`s not substantiated by the facts.''

''If any officer feels he can set upon any group of people, he is sadly mistaken,'' Martin added.

Meanwhile, about 150 people gathered Tuesday night at the Rainbow Beach Park Fieldhouse, 7500 S. South Shore Dr., to register complaints of police brutality with area politicians. Most of the audience`s comments were about the shooting death of Leonard Banister by Officer Noel Hartfield.

Many in the audience said that Hartfield should be charged with murder for killing Banister in what began as a routine police search of drug suspects at 79th Street and Kingston Avenue.

''We expect the City of Chicago to charge Hartfield with murder,'' Conrad Worrill, of the National Black United Front, told the audience. ''What Chicago needs is a citizens review board of the Police Department, and we need a mass demonstration to take place from police headquarters to Mayor Daley`s home.''